Disney x 2

It looks like Disney is coming twice this year! We have a Disney cruise planned for December of 2009.... but it looks like we'll be going to Disney World in February too! It was really spur of the moment. Brian called me from work yesterday and said "How about we go to Florida in a couple weeks". It didn't really surprise me because he's been complaining about having the winter blues lately. He usually gets out of the winter blues when we go snowboarding, but with all of the hectic-ness going on with my grandparents, I feel bad having my parents babysit Owen while we snowboard. So, we haven't been able to go yet this year =( I'm sure we'll get to go soon enough though.

Anyway, this will be Owen's first time flying! We're probably going to get a direct flight from Albany to Orlando so that we don't have to do any of that 2 hour layover crap, and our flight should only be a couple hours. Should be manageable, but we're not taking any chances.... we're bringing a dvd player for him because I'm 99% certain that Owen will NOT sleep at all during the flight. At least we'll occupy all 3 seats and have the whole row to ourselves.

The next problem is just trying to figure out how we're going to get all of Owen's stuff to FL. Fortunately he's not a baby so we don't have to bring the bouncer, swing, portable changing table.... lol!! But we have to bring a car seat and stroller (definitely the umbrella stroller because I'm not even sure how much we'll use it, if at all)

Now to do inventory on our summer wardrobe.

Hahaha as I'm about to publish this I look over and see Owen holding my cell phone up to his ear and saying "Hello Mickey, this is Owen! Do you have a telephone? I'm on mommys telephone. Ok I'm going to sleep, I'm tired. Bye!"

It's official...

...my son is a big boy.

I remember when Owen grew out of the "newborn" clothes at Gymboree (which are 0-24 months) and he was then in the "baby boy" section. Well now Owen has grown out of the baby boy section and he's in the "Kid Boy" section! It really is crazy. Not only that but, today I was looking through a book of classes, deciding which to sign him up for after this session. Well, he's too old to take ANY of the classes we've taken this year and unfortunately a couple classes I wanted to sign him up for.

We went to the outlets the other day and I seriously was only able to find like 5 things in Owen's size at Carter's. I guess they tend to specialize in baby clothes, because the baby clothes are super cute (and I swear the baby boy newborn stuff has gotten cuter since I've had to buy it)

Owen doesn't even ride in the shopping cart anymore. He walks next to me and helps me shop. He goes and picks up things I ask him to find (bananas, apples, crackers, etc) and he also picks out his own stuff. I threw a loaf of bread in the cart and I turned for a second and not only had Owen taken the loaf out of the cart, put it back on the shelves... but he had chosen a loaf of bread that he wanted instead. It's so nice to have a kid who can just walk around the store with me, and not cry in the seat and get bored. He also understands the whole stay out of the road concept really well. If we're walking out of a store he looks towards the parking lot, turns back and looks at me, and reaches his hand out to me and says "cars coming. be careful" :) I finally feel like that 6 months of broken record has paid off and a light bulb went off. I think Owen is out of the terrible twos. Ahh the "terrific threes" are next, and I can't wait!

Cold enough??!

Alright, I am fully aware of the fact that I chose to move back here from the south. Totally regretting it right about now, just so you know!!! But in my defense I don't remember it being this cold! Maybe it's the whole southern thing, and not truly remembering how cold COLD really is. Ummm okay and I'm not even kidding but, when we lived there, and it was 100 degrees in the summer I said to Brian that I would rather live somewhere with single digit temperatures than in the triple digits. Oh man am I regretting that now! It was -5 degrees when I got up this morning. If that doesn't wake you up when you go to get the paper, then NOTHING will!

Although right now I'm wishing we hadn't moved North, this summer when our previous house in Virginia floods again during hurricane season, I will remember why we made the smart decision to leave the South. I think, natural disaster-wise, that the North East is the best place to live if you can deal with the snow. For the most part, you don't have to worry about hurricanes, tornadoes, earth quakes and floods. Now if we can just get spring to come a little early this year......

mmmm

There is only one thing better than a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.....

A GIGANTIC Reese's Peanut Butter Cup!!!!

http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/giant_reeses_peanut_butter_cup

I'm going to try this out, possibly this afternoon. I have been craving peanut butter cups lately (I've already raided Brian and Owen's stockings, and ate all of theirs haha!)

Apparently someone missed the memo

Me.

I guess I'm the only person on earth that doesn't watch Oprah. I'm more of an Ellen fan I guess. I totally didn't hear about the free photo books until everyone had already received theirs... and the offer was over?? Sucks. But, I made one for my parents for Christmas because I thought it would be cute "from Owen". So, here it is...

"Fun times with mi-ma and g-pa"

Family photos

Usually, we go get professional pictures for Christmas. Sometimes we end up using those pictures on our Christmas cards. Well, our first family photo experience was AWFUL. It was November 2006. Owen was about 5 months old and the stupid lady who took the pictures was a nightmare. I was breastfeeding and any of you who have done that know that it makes your boobs HUGE. Ok, well the photographer was like "hold your baby" so I did and then she laughed and said "hahaha! Well we're not going to do that pose! No offense but it makes you look like you have three boobs..... because his head is even with your two and they're all around the same size" I was like UMM are you kidding me?? Stupid b....

So, besides the fact that she was wicked annoying. She also was terrible with children. She kept blowing air in Owen's face and he was like what the heck is she doing?? We didn't get one smile out of Owen because of her. Brian never wanted to take Owen to get pictures again after that, so for the past 2 years since then, I've had to take Owen to get his picture taken. Last year I took Owen to get some Christmas pictures taken, and Owen was at the really clingy stage so I had to be in a lot of the pictures with him, even though I wasn't planning on it. Well, the photographer wanted to put a couple pictures of Owen and I on the card but I told her not to. I didn't want people wondering why the card only had pictures of Owen and I on it..... so we just had a couple pictures of Owen on the Christmas card.

This year I really wanted a family picture. To keep both Brian and Owen happy, I decided it would be easiest to have my mom take the pictures at my parents house. It worked out wonderfully! I'm SO glad we did that this year, and I think the pictures came out great! Even Winnie girl is in them =) My dad was a really big help too. He had a toy tractor that he kept putting on top of his head, and driving it up his arms and everything, to keep Owen entertained and sitting through the photoshoot. It really was the perfect way to take family pictures with a toddler. The best part, when we got home that night it was 11pm.... I uploaded the pictures, ordered 40 copies from walgreens.com and picked them up the next morning! No waiting around for cards to be printed, or waiting weeks for them to arrive. We will most certainly be doing this again next year.

the Holiday's are always crazy.... for other reasons

Things have been really crazy around here, hence, the lack of updates. Between my grandmother going into the nursing home, my grandparents getting into a car accident on Thanksgiving night, Sherlock being put to sleep, and the constant appointments..... it's ridiculous, to say the least. Oh yeah, and the holiday's. Yep. This is the first time I've had to just sit and type for a few minutes (and while I'm doing this, I'm eating lunch AND ordering prints. So even when I have "free" time, I really don't)

This afternoon I have to go send out a bunch of stuff that I sold on eBay, basically because I'm sick of having tons of crap around the house that we don't use. Then I have to go take Brian to Glens Falls when he gets home from work so we can pick up the SUV, that just got 4 brand new tires. *cash register noise* .... Brian just happened to pick the best tires they had too. What's with guys and wanting the best tires? I totally get it that you have to have good tires, but I don't know. I feel like I constantly have to go to appointments. These past few months have been either doctors appointments for me, or dentist appointments for me. I'm really glad that Owen hasn't had to go to the doctors since his 2 year appointment in June, otherwise I'd probably feel like I lived in doctors offices!

So, the whole thing with the dentist.... I had a mouth mold made in June, and was supposed to get braces in August. Well, unfortunately my dentist and orthodontist don't agree on which teeth I should have removed and that is why there is the hold up. In May of 2007 my dentist in Virginia discovered that I had a really rare issue. I don't remember what the name is, but basically it's a little sack above tooth #4, connected to the root, and the sac is filled with 32 tiny teeth! How crazy is that?? So Sci-fi! But, it's causing an infection (((which by the way, I JUST found out yesterday, is causing my elevated platelet count!! Big relief. My doctor was about to send me to a hematologist thinking I had a blood disease))) So, anyway, My dentist referred me to a specialist who is going to determine if they can save the tooth, and remove the sac surgically, or if they have to remove the tooth. Seriously, if they decide to remove the tooth I'm just going to have my wisdom teeth removed then too. My orthodontist was just going to have them removed AFTER I got my braces off. But hey, if I have to have surgery on that tooth I seriously don't want to know what's going on.... and why not get all of the other teeth out at the same time so I don't have to go through the procedure and recovery twice? So I have a consultation with the root canal expert on Monday and we'll go from there I guess.

I had an appointment with my gynecologist a couple weeks ago. We decided that we're going to watch my ovarian cyst and decide in a month or two whether I should keep my IUD or switch to birth control (Mainly because IUD's don't stop ovulation so if someone is prone to getting cysts (which are caused by the release of an egg. Every egg a woman releases causes a cyst, but they're usually tiny and go away on their own) they will still have eggs to form cysts. Birth control pills suppress ovulation, which means that there aren't any eggs to form cysts.

Phew. I'm tired just typing all of that out.

My grandfather moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation center. He just had full casts put on his legs that go up above the knee. He's really depressed because he was so active prior to the accident. I think he's just really discouraged to be in this situation. He has to be in the rehabilitation center for 12 weeks, so that means he'll be there for Christmas and New Years. We're just glad that he's going to be okay eventually. I just hope his spirits get better.

Owen is doing really well. He'll be 2 1/2 next week!!! Owen can count to 20 and knows his whole alphabet. He also knows about 30 different, entire songs by heart, and will sing along with music that I am listening to in the car. He will also randomly start rattling off stories that I guess he has memorized too! He loves giving hugs and kisses, and understands the concept of being hurt and what situations are dangerous and can cause you to get hurt.... which is GREAT. I just signed Owen up for the next session of classes. This session he's taking Tumbling Tikes. Should be awesome... and I'm happy because it's a little closer to us than the branch where his previous class was. Which by the way, we missed this morning because of the snow! It looks like the roads are clearing up

Well, it sounds like UPS just delivered my new pea coat! I have a pink one, and a white one... but I wanted one to match Owen's new pea coat =)